Automated co2 portioning system for grocery totes

ABSTRACT

A method for allocating a chilling substance to a transport tote for preserving a food product therein includes measuring thermal properties of the food product to be transported; calculating environmental conditions for which the transport tote is to be exposed during transport; allocating an amount of the chilling substance to a container for being deposited in the transport tote for the preserving of the food product; and depositing the container in the transport tote.
     A related apparatus is also provided.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present embodiments relate to transport cooling for grocery totes.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is used to provide refrigeration for home grocery delivery. CO₂ provides reliable and tremendous cooling per unit mass and leaves no moisture as it melts. CO₂ pellets are also readily available, although expensive to use for shipping purposes. Dry ice is usually packed with the food product all around the food product, even in many instances covering same, prior to shipment. The filling of the dry ice results in shipping the container as a “one size fits all” approach with the dry ice. It is also not uncommon for the dry ice to be delivered manually with no understanding as to the correct amount of refrigeration needed for the product being shipped. As a result, the “one size fits all” approach is an inefficient and certainly can be an unnecessarily expensive process when shipping the grocery product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is therefore provided a method for allocating a chilling substance to a transport tote for preserving a food product therein, which includes measuring thermal properties of the food product to be transported; calculating environmental conditions for which the transport tote is to be exposed during transport; allocating an amount of the chilling substance to a container for being deposited in the transport tote for the preserving of the food product; and depositing the container in the transport tote.

There is also provided an apparatus for preserving a food product for transport to an end user, which includes a transport tote having an internal space therein sized and shaped to receive the food product; and a sealed container in which CO₂ snow is contained, the sealed container positioned in the transport tote.

Other features of the present embodiments are set forth herein and provided in the present claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the following description of exemplary embodiments considered in connection with the accompanying drawing FIGURE, of which:

The FIGURE shows a side view of an automated CO₂ portioning system embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The FIGURE shows products, such as grocery products, shipped in totes or containers, which hold at least one and for many uses a plurality of bags of groceries. The totes can be packaged for the groceries to be shipped in a frozen state, a chilled state, or ambient.

Before explaining the inventive embodiments in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, if any, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

In the following description, terms such as a horizontal, upright, vertical, above, below, beneath and the like, are to be used solely for the purpose of clarity illustrating the invention and should not be taken as words of limitation. The drawings are for the purpose of illustrating the invention and are not intended to be to scale.

The present embodiments provide a supplier for a shipper of grocery products with a solution for accurately allocating the right amount of CO₂ with each grocery tote depending upon the product being shipped in the tote. The amount of CO₂ to be used for each tote is based upon the products thermal characteristics, delivery time for the tote, the refrigeration necessary for the products being delivered, and environmental conditions to which the tote is subjected during the delivery to the recipient.

Referring to the FIGURE, there is disclosed how the process of the present embodiments works for the automated CO₂ portioning system for grocery totes in the present embodiments. In particular and referring to the FIGURE, a system for a method is shown generally at 10 and includes the following stages.

(1) Empty grocery totes 12, boxes or containers enter an automatic conveyor line 14 or conveyor belt. The conveyor line 14 includes an inlet 16 and an outlet 18. The tote 12 has an internal space 20 which can be closed off with a top 22 by way of for example flaps of closure material. The internal space 20 is sized and shaped to receive at least one and for many applications a plurality of groceries 24 or grocery bags containing a food product or products, in addition to a snow box 26.

(2) The totes 12 are filled with the groceries 24 specific to a customer's order. Thermal characteristics of the groceries 24 are known and uploaded into a database (ie., storage temperature, mass, specific heat, latent heat, etc.). The thermal mass of the groceries 24 in each tote 12 can be calculated. The top 22 of the tote 12 remains in an open position for a purpose to be described hereinafter.

(3) The snow box 26 (insulated box for holding CO₂ snow 28 or CO₂ pellets) is positioned in the internal space 20 near a top of the delivery tote 12. During this step, the computer system (not shown) calculated the amount of CO₂ snow 28 required for transport based on the following variables, ie. thermal properties of food=thermal mass, desired holding temperature of product, external conditions for the day (outside temperature, humidity over the course of the day), delivery time to customer site, amount of time the tote 12 will remain at the customer site, conditions of a delivery platform transporting the tote 12 such as for example conditions inside a delivery truck (chilled, frozen, ambient). The delivery platform may be intermodal, ie transportable in an intermodal delivery platform where, for purposes herein, “intermodel delivery platform” refers to transport of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle (truck, ship, rail) without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. With these variables, accurate heat transfer calculations can be made which will result in an estimate of the amount of CO₂ snow 28 required to be deposited in the snow box 26 for use with the groceries 24 in the tote 12.

(4) The calculated amount of CO₂ snow 28 is automatically dispensed or deposited in the snow box 26 as per stage (3) above. The snow box 26 is sealed to prevent direct contact with the CO₂ pellets in the snow box.

(5) The tote 12 is closed by moving the top 22, such as the flaps for example, into a position to seal off access to the internal space 20 of the tote. The tote 12 then exits the conveying line 14 for loading into trucks (not shown) and shipment to customer(s) at a remote location.

An alternative embodiment calls for the snow box 26 to be filled separately with the CO₂ snow 28, possibly at a remote location from the conveyor line 14 shown, after which the snow box is deposited on top of the grocery products 24 in the tote. The top 22, or open-end of the tote, can have a movable cover or a pair of flaps which overlap to seal the opening of the internal space 20 of the tote after the grocery products 24 and snow box 26 are deposited therein.

The snow box 26 rests on top of the grocery products 24 for chilling or maintaining same in a frozen state. The grocery products 24 do not have to be packaged, but can instead by unwrapped items such as for example apples, pears, IQR (individual quick frozen) shrimp, etc.

It will be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely exemplary, and that a person skilled in the art may make variations and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as described and claimed herein. It should be understood that the embodiments described above are not only in the alternative, but can be combined. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for allocating a chilling substance to a transport tote for preserving a food product therein, comprising: measuring thermal properties of the food product to be transported; calculating environmental conditions for which the transport tote is to be exposed during transport; allocating an amount of the chilling substance to a container for being deposited in the transport tote for the preserving of the food product; and depositing the container in the transport tote.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transporting the transport tote to a remote location and during which the food product is preserved for an end user.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating occurs after the food product is deposited in the transport tote.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating occurs before the food product is deposited in the transport tote.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating occurs after the depositing of the container in the transport tote.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the depositing comprises positioning the container on top of the food product in the transport tote.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the chilling substance comprises a substance selected from the group consisting of CO₂ snow and CO₂ pellets.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the thermal properties are selected from the group consisting of storage temperature, mass, specific heat, latent heat, and combinations of same; and the calculating environmental conditions are selected from the group consisting of temperature external to the transport tote, humidity external to the transport tote, delivery time for the transport tote to reach the end user, residence time of the transport tote at the end user, and conditions of a transport platform delivering the transport tote to the end user.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the allocating further comprises further calculating the amount of the chilling substance needed responsive to said thermal properties and said environmental conditions.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating further comprises filling the container with the chilling substance at a location remote from the depositing the container in the transport tote.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the food product comprises at least one grocery bag.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sealing the container after the allocating.
 13. An apparatus for preserving a food product for transport to an end user, comprising: a transport tote having an internal space therein sized and shaped to receive the food product; and a sealed container in which CO₂ snow is contained, the sealed container positioned in the transport tote.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a conveyor for conveying the transport tote to a position to receive the sealed container.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the container is insulated.
 16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the food product comprises a plurality of different foodstuffs.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of different foodstuffs are in at least one grocery bag. 